Entries by Martin Laurence

Aston Villa are a club in limbo in more ways than one. With Randy Lerner having put the Midlands outfit up for sale and seemingly no nearer to securing a buyer, the transfer window gone by was somewhat of...

The first 'month' of the Premier League season is over and it's fair to say there have already been a number of surprises. The least shocking outcome from the three matches thus far, perhaps, sees favourites prior to the season Chelsea...

With the relationship between Sam Allardyce, the West Ham board and fans forced to near breaking point at the start of the year the future at Upton Park didn't look too bright. The club stuck by the manager and Allardyce eventually...

Football is an unpredictable game and the Premier League is certainly no different. As much was evident in the very first game of the 2014/15 campaign, where a United side rejuvenated by the appointment of Louis van Gaal were expected to...

Much has been made of the 'gutting' of Southampton after a summer exodus that most seem to have suggested will leave the Saints down to the bare bones. What is evident though is the lack of panic in the transfer market as far as incomings are concerned.

The transition between the Championship and Premier League is a tricky one, and one that Leicester, Burnley and QPR will be looking to cope with this season following their promotion into England's top-flight. It's a tough ask for players, particularly of...

Most French football fans were damning of the decision to hand Salvatore Sirigu the Ligue 1 Goalkeeper of the Season award at the end of the 2013/14 campaign. The Italian had another solid season with a PSG side tested considerably less...

It's safe to say Newcastle weren't particularly excited by the return of Joe Kinnear in the role of Director of Football last summer. After an infamous radio interview the man that left the club in 2009 after just a four-month stint...

Now that's out of the way, let's focus on a couple of matters that have been lost in the melee of David Luiz's Tasmanian Devil style of defending. The Selecao's ultimate humiliation has overshadowed just what...

James Rodríguez has been one of the players of the World Cup so far, of that there is no doubt. His rating of 8.68 from WhoScored.com indicates as much, ranking fourth at the time of writing, and it was fitting that a player...

Last summer Lewis Holtby's departure from Schalke was softened by the fact that the club had a number of emerging youngsters to take his place. Julian Draxler was at the front of the queue, though he had broken into the first team some...

March proved to be a profitable month for a number of the strikers across Europe's top 5 leagues, with WhoScored.com looking at those that have recently hit a purple patch at club level. There were as many as 12 players that scored in...

The rise to stardom of Adam Lallana has been coming for some time. Southampton's local lad was an established member of the first team by the time he was 20, making 40 appearances in the 2008/09 season that saw the Saints...

It's fair to say that Bayern Munich are romping to the title once again in the Bundesliga, in Pep Guardiola's first season in charge. It's not great news for the league as a spectacle, with closest rivals Leverkusen and Dortmund both faltering in recent months, but there is one other...

With men behind the ball and visitors Chelsea struggling to carve out many clear cut opportunities, Steve Bruce may have been confident of another clean sheet at the KC Stadium as the sides approached the hour mark on Saturday. It took...